Bad Weather, ASDP Fery Kupang Temporarily Closes 4 Crossings In NTT

Users of crossing transport services seemed to be jostling into the Fery Ship at Bolok Kupang Port, Wednesday, (27/6/2023). The ship is scheduled to depart for Lembata and Deri on Adonara Island. (ANTARA)

KUPANG - PT Transport Sungai Danau and Ferry Ferry Kupang Branch temporarily closed shipping on four crossings in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) Province due to bad weather in marine waters. "For safety, we will temporarily cancel all shipping for four routes today," said Business Manager of PT ASDP Fery Kupang Branch Andri Matte in Kupang, Antara, Monday, July 24. This was conveyed by him related to bad weather that hit NTT such as strong winds accompanied by high waves that occurred in a number of marine waters in the island-based province. The four transient closed crossings are the Kupang-Rote, Kupang-Aimere-Wangapu, and Kupang-Sabu, and Kupang-Ende routes. Andri Matte said that based on warnings from the BMKG, it was related to bad weather that occurred in the NTT region, where wind speeds reached 30 knots and waves with a height of 4 meters occurred in the waters of NTT. He added that the temporary closure of a number of shipping routes could not be ascertained until when, but according to the BMKG report, such weather will continue until Tuesday. Adi Matte added that the closure of several routes had also been carried out since last Sunday on the Kupang-Larantuka route and also Kupang-Rote. His party will continue to monitor weather developments from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) to determine shipping activities. Previously, BMKG appealed to residents to be aware of waves as high as 4 meters with the opportunity to hit five points in the sea area of NTT. "The potential of sea waves of 2.5-4 meters should be watched out for because of the high risk of shipping ferries," said Acting Head of the Maritime Meteorological Station Tenau Kupang BMKG Agung Sudiono Abadi.

He mentioned five points of the sea area that are likely to be hit by waves up to 4 meters, namely the western Sumba Strait, the Sawu Sea, the southern Indian Ocean Sumba-Sabu, the southern waters of Kupang-Rote, and the southern Indian Ocean Kupang-Rote.